After The Fire
by arathia
Summary: The first few months of Van's training start of very strangely. He could have sworn he killed Raven, but there he was in front of him. Unconscious, broken, burned and dying what else was there to do but take him in? Pity Shadow was away hunting...
1. Chapter 1

**AN:** This may or may not turn into a Yoai. Probably not. Oh, and it's been a while since I saw GF, let alone Thomas, so like in all my fics, he will most likely be OoC.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own zoids.

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**.:Chapter 1:.**

**Discovery**

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Van's Liger was approaching the rough region at high-speed. The blades were out and glowing. He was ready for the dangerous moving targets to try and shoot him down. He knew that he'd beat them with ease.

Krueger was somewhere back at base operating them via computer. Van assumed he would be serious about it, but apparently Karl had found him with hand in a packet of crisps and the other playing the controls like a game.

That was beside the point anyway. He needed to defeat these targets without getting a scratch to impress the colonel, and ever since he'd joined the Guardian Force he'd told himself that he'd do everything possible to improve.

His mind was at ease knowing that Zi's two largest threats were out of the way, but who knows, someone could still cause trouble. There had been recent talk of bandit groups joining together to overthrow the single government after all.

Not everyone had been happy about the decision to make Zi a constitutional monarchy. Some people had even turned violent to stop it.

On Van's right a hovering robot shot out and fired three sharp laser bursts, but he was alert enough to dodge them. Of course, Van could have turned and activated his shield, but he was afraid there might be one behind him to catch him if he did that. Besides, he wanted the maneuvering practice.

The Liger surged forward, slicing through the bot and letting the pieces fall down behind him. The radar beeped at the pilot, distracting him from the exercise long enough to get hit.

Van swore and shot the next bot down. "Sir, my radar picked up something really small." He said with concern. It looked too small to be a zoid, but it was still made of the same metal. "Maybe it's another organoid, it's moving away quickly."

Krueger frowned, opening up a visual link. "Go check it out, I'll send the Shubaltz's as back up."

Van nodded and closed the link. "Come on Zeke, let's go chase that zoid!"

His buddy gave a growl of readiness, always happy to help. The white organoid was hanging close by, but hadn't been allowed to merge with the Liger until now.

Zeke seemed happier when merged with the zoid core. He enjoyed fighting beside Van despite his mostly peaceful nature. The white one had changed a lot since the two first met. Zeke had tried to attack Van when he was first released, but quickly bonded after Van tried to save him from a bigger zoid. Since then they'd fought together on too many occasions to count.

They were silent on the way towards the beeping sound. The dot was moving away faster than the Liger was approaching it. "Look's like he's got away." Van sighed, but not giving up. Zeke growled in a way that he hoped would cheer the human up.

"You're right." Van answered. "We will get him, if not now, later."

Zeke felt happy, he'd done his bit, but then something began bothering him. Something was there in the distance too small for Van to see, but it was a dark patch against the bright golden sand. He alerted Van, wondering what it could be.

Zeke feared the worst, not all organoids had become calm like him. There had been more vicious ones than kind ones back when they thrived, and even now the only other organoid they had known had been a monster.

Shadow – now dead – had terrorized a large part of Zi, mercilessly killing all the zoids he could for his master's sake. They assumed it was because of Raven, for they had never actually spoken to Shadow, and could never tell what was going on inside his mind. Raven just seemed to dominate that organoid completely.

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Van squinted, now able to see the same dark form Zeke had. The organoid made an urgent sound, telling him it was a human. Van's heart began racing, aware that the human was in danger of death. The desert was no place to be without shade and water. This human didn't seem to have either.

The Liger slowed to a stop and Van jumped out to inspect the body, well aware that they could already be dead. As he got closer he could see blood stains on the dark material covering the stranger's body.

"Are you okay?" Van called, approaching quickly. He knelt down to the figure and touched the body. A grimace crossed his face as he felt the warmth. Dark clothes weren't good in the desert; they attracted too much heat for daytime wear.

Van pulled the large black cloak off and found a boy's back facing him. He seemed to wearing an imperial-looking uniform that had suffered too great a heat. This did nothing for Van's optimism.

He rolled the boy towards him and stared with very wide eyes. Beside him Zeke collapsed onto his side with a 'HUH!?' sound.

"R-Raven?" Van cried with a failing voice. He just gaped at the sight for a while longer. That pale face was unmistakable, but still he felt like it wasn't true. The boy in front of him seemed badly hurt, but not dead, and how could that be?

Zeke stood back up, shaking the sand of him, accidentally spraying some onto Van who'd normally yell and complain, but he sat in stunned silence. The organoid tapped his partner's face in a friendly way, waiting for the boy to respond.

Finally Van shook himself free from the trance and stood up. His knees now seemed weak, as if they struggled to support him. The boy made him way slowly back to the Liger and hoped into the cockpit, pulling the visual communications link right away.

"Krueger," He began with a deceptively calm voice, his eyes staring right ahead of him but not focusing on anything but Raven's face burned into his mind.

"What's wrong?" The colonel asked, too worried to tell him off for now calling him by his rank.

"I need backup now. Some medics would be good too."

Krueger nodded, once again closing the link. He began barking orders, his brow creased in concern. He liked Van and new it wasn't normal for the boy to look so haunted. Whatever happened must have been very bad.


	2. Chapter 2

**AN:** Sorry for the wait, I had lost the direction of this story, but thankfully I've regainedan idea of what to do. I appologise for the tiny length that I is so common of me, and I am trying to change it, however I found this chapter's natural ending to be at little over one thousand words. I figure it's best not to try my luck and end up injuring myself by diving straight in with a poor quality chapter of 3000 words, yeah? I would also like to take this time to say please go to the forums and check out the Organoid Rp (the bottom forum), desperately in need and people and with a great vision for the future. Any questions? Feel free to pm me. No notable songs for this fic, but I am working on the third chapter now. Btw, like the new title layout?

I hope you enjoy!

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**After The Fire**

**Chapter 2**

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"So what exactly happened?" Krueger asked, sitting next to Van a new Whale King. The Republic had gladly taken the gigantic zoids in the peace offerings after the war ended. The flying transport zoids were valued most by the emergency services that used them as fast methods of taking supplies and injured to the necessary areas.

They had decided that the fastest way to get to Van with all the medics and warriors was inside on of the Wale Kings, and now the soldiers were appreciating all the extra room while the medics attended to Raven in one of the emergency rooms.

"I was picking something up on the radar." Van began. "So I followed it and found a body. I didn't realize it was Raven until I got closer."

Krueger's brow creased, and he felt a sense of dread rising in him. "How did he come on radar?"

"He didn't." Van said quickly. "Something else did, but it got away."

"Hasn't Raven got an organoid?"

"You're right!" He cried, looking panicked. "That must have been Shadow!"

Krueger's eyes looked terribly sorry and Van was fidgeting with his fist. They had just discovered that one half of the most terrifying team alive was out on the loose and quite possible angry at them. They couldn't help but think about all the damage Shadow would cause when trying to find his human, and worse still: what would happen when he did find him?

Zeke made a strange sound between a purr and a growl to try and calm him down. Rising as he did, and watching Van cautiously. The humans seemed horrified, and Zeke couldn't understand why. Surely Shadow couldn't do much alone. He couldn't ever remember Shadow being the powerhouse of the two mavericks.

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Meanwhile the medics were having an interesting time trying to get Raven safe and well.

"I don't see why we're doing this." A younger female complained. Her deep blue hair was bound tightly in a black band in a worrying attempt to keep the thick lot back. It looked like it might snap at any moment and fling out, creating disaster amongst the medics – some of those were surprisingly fragile for their profession.

"We're here to help." An older woman answered as she put a wet cloth on Raven's forehead. "Besides, we don't know if all he needs is a showed and some time under an Air-con. He could have suffered some more serious injuries."

"Like this." One of the few men added grimly. He had just removed one of the gloves with small difficulty and revealed to them all the burned palms.

They winced.

"Lacole, get the disinfectant spray from the cupboard." The old woman commanded before anyone else had reacted. Thirty years in the job and you see a lot. That said she still felt strange about this boy. He was a cold killer that looked as innocent as a child and was under her care. It was a very strange feeling.

The blue haired girl returned with the disinfectant quickly and though nervous, her curiosity led her to ask what she was sure was inappropriate. "He's going to get he death sentence anyway." She began shyly, and as expected received dirty looks from her colleagues. "So…aren't we just wasting tools?"

A young, blonde man from across the bed glanced from the boot he was removing to her. "As much as I hate him, I still have to do my job. Besides, look at him. He might get off because he's so young."

Lacole looked back down at her work of removing Raven's armour. She knew that he had lost family to Raven and tried not to think of how he must resent his work. Who would want to fix up the one who killed their family?

She turned her attention back to Raven's armour. The armour came off easier than she expected, but it was clearly damaged. Strange channels ran along the surface, looking very out of place. As she placed it down on a bedside table she realized the heat had partially melted it out of place. _Did the safety straps make those marks? No…they're not the right size or shape…_

The suit didn't fair much better, but amazingly hadn't fused to the boy's skin. The medics were all working on finding and aiding all burns. Sadly for them, this meant they had to strip him down first. Once that was done they were going to perform X-rays and see if anything was broken.

Lacole cut open the battle suit carefully. It wasn't too hard to pull away from the skin until it got to where the breastplate had been. She made a small wince and paused, trying to figure out the best way to remove to the once melted uniform.

The old woman glanced over and grimaced. "What's happened there?" She asked, leaning in and picking up a scalpel. "That doesn't look to good."

"No wonder they thought he was dead." The quietest said, her eyes flicking shyly up to the two female doctors. His body had suffered badly from the backfired heat of the charged particle beam, but something had stopped the full force of the inferno from wreaking its toll on him.

The old woman quickly removed the rest of his top, cutting around the melted suit. "We'll wait until we can graft." She mumbled while Lacole watched closely.

The girl found herself staring at the pale stomach. It was very toned for such a young body and even more surprising was the rib definition. She wondered how much he ate, and when the last time was. She knew it must have been a while since he passed out from something. He hadn't yet woken and as far as they knew his system was drug free. They had anesthetic on the tables and soldiers outside for the moment he regained consciousness, but it didn't seem too likely just yet.

Lacole hoped it would stay that way, as she had no intention of facing him waking to be half naked, injured and in a room full of strangers with cutting utensils.


End file.
